Toasting 2009's Best CDs

By

Larry Blumenfeld

Updated Dec. 29, 2009 7:11 p.m. ET

Handwringers issuing dire prognoses for jazz are like holiday-season Grinches during a recession: We've known more flush times, but let's not take for granted this year's considerable offerings, nor the spirit that binds them. "There's a revolution going on," trumpeter Terence Blanchard told me. "But it's the quietest one I've ever heard of, because everybody has their own version." Beyond the lack of a definitive stylistic credo is the fact that jazz innovation now generally fails to register on the pop-culture radar. Making a list of the year's best isn't so hard; for me, it's downright...